Reactions to Federal Ruling on DOMA

As we reported on the God Discussion show last Thursday, July 8, a federal judge in Massachusetts held that portions of DOMA (the federal Defense of Marriage Act) are unconstitutional. Per KMPH Fox News,

A judge's rulings in Massachusetts that the federal law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional could have implications far beyond the state if they're upheld by a higher court after an appeal by the Obama administration, legal experts say. U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro said the law, the Defense of Marriage Act, interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and therefore denies married gay couples some federal benefits. He ruled Thursday in favor of gay couples' rights in two separate challenges to DOMA, which the administration of President Barack Obama has argued for repealing.

Jack Cafferty reviewed the case and took comments from his viewers:

The religious right is furious and believes the ruling will be appealed, although many are believing that the Obama administration's federal lawyers are not rigorously defending DOMA. According to the American Family Association's One News Now filtered news service, an "appeal is likely in 'lunatic' marriage rulings." AFA goes on to say,

Dale Schoengert, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, offer strong criticism of the decision. "I think that this judge's ruling — that there's no ruling whatsoever for marriage to be defined as one man and one woman — is going to go down as a very poor decision," he offers. "[Maybe as] one of the most outrageous of the last decade." (Listen to audio report)

From the outset, according to Schoengert, the federal attorneys' arguments waved a white flag.

"In the opening page, it said that [the government] supports the repeal of this law and believes it's discriminatory, and [then] proceeded to disavow all the reasons that Congress said that it passed the law — specifically for the benefit of children: that children needed a mom and a dad and that the government should encourage that ideal," he explains.

The Family Research Council predictably characterized the ruling as absurd, and went on to to say:

Regardless of Tauro's skewed views, the blame for this decision lies directly at the feet of Elena Kagan and her boss, President Obama. The President has called for overturning DOMA, but as Solicitor General, Ms. Kagan is responsible for defending existing federal laws in court. But instead of trying to win the case, she intentionally sabotaged it, dropping the strongest arguments in favor of DOMA. At the time, legal experts were shocked that she didn't include procreation as the main reason for protecting man-woman marriage.

About D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.